Surprising things no-one tells you about teaching English abroad

Siobhan Smith was given a job in Vietnam teaching English as a foreign language despite a dreadful trial, simply because she was white. It was a bad start but the experience was great – even with other surprises

Teaching English as a foreign language is big business. There are 1.7 billion English learners worldwide, and the British Council estimates this will rise to two billion by 2020. The demand for English teaching delivered by someone who speaks the language as a mother tongue is at an all-time high.

It is also seen as an increasingly enticing option for many graduates unable to get their foot on the career ladder in the UK, or for those who want to see a bit of the world while making money along the way.

In 2012, I decided to try it out for myself and set off for Vietnam four years after I graduated. Aged 26, my decision to teach English was born out of a desire to fund travel round Asia, rather than as a career option.

I had completed a Tefl (teaching English as a foreign language) course which combined 100 hours of online tutorials and a 20-hour practical crash course, consisting of a variety of role-play situations and mock lessons. The course cost around £200. Some of the more intensive courses last several weeks and cost upwards of £1,200.

This is money well spent with more than 100,000 positions for native English teacher’s abroad opening up each year, according to the International Tefl Academy.

As for an experience, it was constantly surprising – from being given a job based purely on my appearance as a Westerner (while being paid five times the amount of more qualified local teachers), to being forced to put on an American accent to teach.

Getting a job

Organisations such as the the British Council and JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme) offer graduates the opportunity to secure a job before leaving the UK, meaning that they arrive in the country with prearranged accommodation and a ready-made support network of other teachers.

While there are clear benefits to this, you are often tied in to a contract and have less autonomy over your working hours and lifestyle. If you are more of a “by the seat of your pants” kind of person, it is possible to start the search when you arrive in many countries.

I went to Vietnam with a copy of my degree certificate, my 120 hours of training and very little idea of what I was doing. (After some research, it became apparent that Vietnam is one of the best countries for teaching English in terms of the wage that is offered compared to the living cost.)

After only a few days in Hanoi, I was invited for an interview at a small language school where I was put on the spot and asked to teach a lesson to a class of 20 children – with a panel of teachers critiquing my every move. With no preparation, it was a complete disaster and resulted in the lesson being cut short.

Despite my shortcomings, I was offered a job – and told that it was because the headteacher had liked my appearance. There was no mention of qualifications and the emphasis was strictly on whether or not the parents would be suitably impressed with my face (essentially, with the colour of my white skin).

My new job required me to teach eight hours per week and paid around £500 per month, which was more than enough to pay for rent and all expenses. I could have doubled, or tripled those teaching hours and salary, respectively, if I had wanted to.

Regional accents can be a problem, too. The school in question was a private American English language centre. However, because I am Scottish there were immeasurable problems with the pronunciation of words including “girl”, “burger” and “purple”.

While this was problematic at the time, I still take a certain amount of pleasure from the thought of a small cohort of Vietnamese children currently walking around Hanoi with an East Coast Scottish accent.

Erin Doherty, from Glasgow, had a similar experience when teaching at a school in Hong Kong. Her boss felt that it was “unfair”on her students that she spoke in a Scottish accent, as they were used to being taught with “correct” British accents.

“I did try to explain on a few occasions that British accents are inclusive of Scottish accents,” says Erin. “But my boss was reluctant to give up our weekly ‘pronunciation practice’ in which I would work with her one-to-one and we would repeat the sounds of the alphabet ‘correctly’.”

You don’t have to speak the local language

Although beneficial, it’s not essential to speak the local language to get a job teaching English. I was always provided with a teaching assistant who could translate and keep control of the classroom – something that is common across the board.

However, even with this help, communicating with a room full of expectant students when you don’t speak a word of the same language is a daunting task.

“Before I started, I was panic stricken at the thought,” says ­Natalie Thompson, a Tefl teacher in Seoul, South Korea. “But when you’re in the situation, it’s amazing what alternative methods you pick up along the way.”

“Things like high fives, thumbs up, silly actions and funny dances all became part of the daily communication system.

Nobody was more surprised than me when I found myself having a full conversation with a four-year-old, using nothing but drawings of stick men, actions, sound effects, and lots of pointing,” she says.

“Especially because my first week of classes mainly involved me watching 15 small children beat each other up with plastic sports equipment and rulers.”

Extracurricular activities

As a foreign teacher, the parents, pupils and teachers are keen to involve you in as many extracurricular activities as possible.

From London, Joey Ng – now an account manager for a public relations firm – taught at a language school Guangzhou, China for 18 months after she graduated. During this time, she found herself in all sorts of unexpected scenarios – all the way from performing a rendition of “Stand By Me” on stage in the school auditorium to compering the school’s summer festival.

“The students love it when they have a group of foreign teachers performing on stage, even if it is terrible,” she says. “You just have to laugh at yourself when you’re put in these situations.”

Native English teachers are usually highly respected members of the community in the areas they teach, Joey explains. The parents want to make conversation with you as much as possible and the school board wants to show you off.

“You’re generally treated well by the school – often like celebrities. So you get dined and greeted by some senior bods like the principal or board at the school.”

Salary gap

The other obvious difference between local and foreign teachers comes in the form of salary.

English speakers from English-speaking countries can earn well over £3,000 per month in Middle Eastern countries and more than £1,500 a month in Asian countries, including Vietnam. This is all dependent on the amount of hours that you are willing to work.

However, it’s a very different story for local teachers, who are generally paid much less than foreign teacher.

In Vietnam, I was essentially unqualified and didn’t speak a word of the local language, yet I found myself easily earning around five times that of the local English teachers – who were qualified teachers, with a university degree.

Susanna Wood taught English in Russia and Ukraine for a combined period of two years, after graduating.

“I think especially in regions where there are few native English speakers there, it can really put a big premium on it,” says Wood, who works as a public relations manager for the language exchange app, Tandem, which pairs up native speakers of almost any language and allows them to learn from one another.

“It’s quite a special skill to have,” she adds. “Where I was teaching in Ukraine, nobody from the UK or America would really go there so it was quite special to have native speakers. Which is odd. Because you’re nothing special but to them, you are.”

Despite this, she never felt that there was any source of hostility between local teachers and native teachers. “It may have been a source of anger against the school,” she says. “But I think for a lot of local teachers, they think that the native teachers are the bee’s knees and it was worth paying more for them. I don’t know if I totally agree with that but that was how it always seemed to me.”

My time in Vietnam was an unforgettable experience. Being able to work for eight hours a week and earn enough to get by on is not a position I imagine I’ll ever be in again. I made friends for life in the local Vietnamese teachers (after overcoming the salary disparity issue) and got a surprising amount of joy every time one of my five-year-olds was able to point at a picture of an animal and tell me what it was called in English.

For me, it was a once in a life time opportunity but there is absolutely no reason why it can’t be a sustainable career choice for those who are looking, and – importantly – think that they can handle the homesickness.

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